Could the Sudetenland have once again been traded for peace in our time?

Wonder how that came about? Did you notice that GE and Morgan Stanely will soon go to Russia and meet with Putin? Can you say quid pro quo?

Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad says Israel will not exist much longer. All the while we and the world allow Iran to pursue its nuclear ambition and Iran supports insurgents in Iraq and Afganistan.

In the background, Chavez confers with Russia, signs oil agreements with China and makes noise about expanding its military. Israel also travels to Russia to plead with them not to provide Iran with advanced air defense systems.

Any idea where all of this might be headed?

Consider that intelligence analysts assess that Iran’s nuclear facilities can be slowed by a military strike but not stopped. That suggests Israel will make their strike decisions knowing that the strike must be broad based and crippling. Wonder what kind of strike the Israelis could have in mind? Given Iran’s retaliation capabilities and the effect such retaliation will have on the world economy, I submit that an Israeli strike will not come in the form of a simple air strike alone. That would be militarily foolish and facilitate Israel’s demise. No, such a strike must be decisive enough to suppress Iran’s military infrastructure. At a minimum, it must take out Iran’s leadership. Like it or not, we will be affected and drawn into the fray.

One more comforting thought to ponder. Do you suppose our lack of border security may have encouraged the installation of myriad sleeper cells to be unleashed in the US as part of any retaliatory scheme? If I were Iran, I cetainly would know I could not play on the same military ball field as the US. Accordingly, I would look to develop a capability to strike hard and deep at my enemy’s infrastructure. I would do this in places where I could significantly hurt their economy and demoralize their society. This would cause my enemy to turn inward to deal with severe economic, social and political disruption. My enemy would be off balance dealing with simultaneous internal and external threats and its power and position in the world community substantially degraded. Imagine the upheaval brought about by major disruptions in the power grid, commuter travel and freight movement. The enemies of my enemy would be free to exploit and improve their power and position.

To say that the ramifications to our economy, given the current deficit and structure of spending priorities, would be serious is an understatement. The economic implications of oil at $200 plus per barrel (if you can get it and do the refining) by itself portends massive and worldwide economic disruption. Where is the manufacturing base needed to support and sustain ourselves in this scenario?

Health care and cap and trade are unimportant distractions. There will be no wealth to redistribute.

When the media shine a spotlight on corporate greed and political dishonesty, it sometimes brings results. This is the case with Wells Fargo, a bank which performed so poorly that it received $25 billion in taxpayer funds to stay afloat. Despite this unfortunate performance, the company planned to treat their employees to a “pricey Las Vegas casino junket.”

According to MSNBC, this has been an annual event, so we can understand how they got into their financial predicament:

The conference is a Wells Fargo tradition. Previous all-expense-paid trips have included helicopter rides, wine tasting, horseback riding in Puerto Rico and a private Jimmy Buffett concert in the Bahamas for more than 1,000 of the company’s top employees and guests….

… initially, the company indicated it had no plans to cancel.

“Recognition events are still part of our culture,” spokeswoman Melissa Murray said Tuesday afternoon. “It’s really important that our team members are still valued and recognized.”

In previous years, top Wells Fargo loan officers were treated to performances by Cher, Jay Leno and Huey Lewis. One year, the company provided fortune tellers and offered camel rides, said Debra Rickard, a former Wells Fargo mortgage employee from Colorado who attended the events regularly until she left the company in 2004.

Every night when employees returned to their rooms, there was a new gift on their pillows, she said.

“I was amazed with just how lavish it was,” Rickard said. “We stayed in top hotels, the entertainment was just unbelievable, and there were awards — you got plaques or trophies.”

Faced with mounting criticism from commentators such as Lou Dobbs, and even from the usually profligate members of Congress, Wells Fargo finally cancelled this year’s event. Several other erstwhile fat cats have already done so, and the public is being astounded with the details of their former lifestyle:

Congress scolded insurance giant American International Group Inc. for spending $440,000 on spa treatments for executives just days after the company took $85 billion from taxpayers. AIG has since canceled all such outings.

Because of the bailout and the recession, other banks have canceled employee outings, including Morgan Stanley, which informed employees Monday that an appreciation trip to Monte Carlo was off.

Let’s recap. AIG has cancelled their spa treatments, Morgan Stanley will forgo Monte Carlo this year, and Wells Fargo will skip the 12 day casino junket in Las Vegas. Well, it’s a start. Perhaps they can pay us taxpayers back that much sooner.

The time was when only the wealthy had brokerage accounts. But nowadays, average folk participate in and profit from the expansion of the United States economy — a rising tide that lifts all their boats.

With this influx of middle income investors, the brokerage houses have been pressed to offer banking services — loans, money market (cash) accounts, checks, credit cards — such as average folk need, in order to remain competitive with traditional banks in this demographic.

With their brokerage account, for example, Morgan Stanley offered a “liquid asset” cash account that could be tapped like a checking account via both paper checks and e-checks, and a MasterCard. This account seemed the best of both the investment and the banking worlds. But banking, it turns out, is not Morgan Stanley’s long suit.

The credit cards are usually issued for two year terms that need renewal at predictable intervals. A typical MasterCard might run from January 2007 through January 2009, so the cardholder would be out blissfully shopping for the two-year interval without a care. He would be mindful of the fact that, in about a year, he would have to start watching his mail for the replacement card.

Ignoring the traditional wisdom that says, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…” Morgan Stanley decided, without warning, to issue new credit cards this past October that would replace the current two-year cards. Out of the blue, they mailed these new (black, not platinum) cards to their account holders throughout the US. What they failed to mention AT ALL was that these were replacement cards smack in mid-period.

All over the country the account holders saved these as a back-up alternative filed away in a safe place, and continued to use their regular cards, which were CONTRACTED IN GOOD FAITH to be viable for another full year. A few days before Christmas, all these cards suddenly became invalid.

Fathers out shopping for Christmas present toys for their children found themselves unable to purchase. Businessmen treating their clients to lunch fouond themselves in the embarrassing position of having to ask their guests to pay. Ditto for those householders treating out-of-town Christmas guests to a night on the town.

In my own case, pressed with tasks from an on-going home remodeling project, I had let the larder run empty, secure in the knowledge that I could always go online and have pizza delivered from Papa John’s on my credit card. My cash reserves were depleted from tucking cash into the Christmas cards of the kind service folk who had been helping me all year.

Mouth watering, I logged on to the restaurant website, selected my three favorite pizzas — spinach alfredo deluxe, Hawaiian chicken barbeque, and all the meats. I had let this task go until the last possible moment, and I was starving. But when I tried to place my order, the computer told me that my credit was no good. I had oatmeal for Christmas. It was all that was left in the house.

When the holiday was over and the Morgan Stanley offices were once again open for business, I called to see what the problem was, and found out about the new black card. After a foray through my junk snail mail, I found the card and tried to authorize it by phone. I didn’t want to eat oatmeal for another day.

But lo, the authorization number presented a continuous busy signal. All day. I was competing for phone access with irate Morgan Stanley cardholders from the entire United States who were in the same predicament.

Fortunately, I have a Morgan Stanley account representative who, since I’ve been with him for over twenty years, is virtually a family friend, and he got my card authorized from the “inside.” I can eat. I will live. The next day the branch manager for the local office called and apologized for the inconvenience. I don’t think I have any problems with the local branch. They have always given good service.

However, I have serious concerns about the executives who created the mess. The Chairman and CEO is John J. Mack, and he bears the ultimate responsibility for what happens underneath him. That’s where the buck stops. He should step down.

Mack has a shady reputation:

Mack was accused by former SEC investigator Gary Aguirre of insider trading. Mack allegedly tipped off hedge fund Pequot Capital about a 2001 merger deal between GE Capital and Heller Financial. In the testimony by Aguirre at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in June 2006, Aguirre said that Pequot had amassed a short position in General Electric shares in the weeks before the deal and a long position in Heller, and the $7 billion hedge fund earned some $18 million in profit once the deal was announced. Aguirre said that he was fired from the SEC on September 1, 2005 because he was aggressively pursuing the investigation and wanted to interview Mack about the findings. According to Aguirre, his efforts to talk to the politically well-connected Mack were blocked by senior SEC officials. This allowed Mack enough time to secure his position as CEO of Morgan Stanley. Had he been investigated in mid 2005 by the SEC, Mack would not have been a viable CEO candidate for Morgan Stanley.

The twelve member board includes a token black with a jazz background and two women. But the majority are privileged old white men whom, one suspects, have a life-style so different from the average person that they do not comprehend our needs, or care, except for what information they need to exploit us and use our savings.

Together, they presided over a massive functional failure that any savvy housewife could have predicted. And I have to ask myself, if they are that clueless, whether I trust them with my hard-earned money and my retirement account. I’m looking at alternatives.